While commercial air travel remains one of the safest forms of transportation, accidents, when they do occur, have devastating results. Advances in aeronautical structural engineering have enhanced the capability of protecting passengers from severe injury and death in the event of an airline accident. However, many lives continue to be lost due to impact injuries and smoke and fire related causes. Many of these deaths are directly attributable to passengers who have survived an impact being trapped inside a burning fuselage.
It is widely accepted in the airline industry that in the event of an airline crash, the more quickly passengers can be separated from the fuselage, the greater the chance of survival. Over the years, several safety features and procedures have been adopted to minimize the risk of injury or death in an airline accident. For example, modern aircraft use flame retardant materials within the passenger compartments, jet fuel additives designed to minimize explosion and fuel spread in the event of a leak (although, due to the nature of jet fuel, these additives are marginally effective at best), and emergency exits having deployable exit chutes.
These and other safety features have increased the chance of passenger survival in case of an accident, but, they have only done so in small incremental steps. It remains that most resulting injury and death in a commercial airliner accident are due to impact survivors being trapped within a burning fuselage. Passengers may have suffered an injury that limits their capability of escape. Emergency exits can be blocked by smoke, fire, or metal making a safe exit impossible. In other circumstances, the emergency exits may not be used at all. Instead, the fuselage may be ripped open and passengers, rightly or wrongly, attempt to exit the aircraft through whatever opening is available to them. In these instances, passengers risk injury through contact with pieces of jagged metal or falling.
There is need, therefore, for an improved airliner passenger compartment which increases the chance of passenger survival in the event of an airline crash.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an airliner fuselage passenger compartment module system which will absorb some of the energy of an airline crash.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system which will jettison from an airliner after inadvertent impact with the ground.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system having airbags and adjustable seat belts for each passenger.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a module system which adds structural strength to the aircraft.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide such a module system which is made of fiberglass, lightweight, and does not add significantly to the overall weight of an aircraft yet provides significant additional structural and linear strength to the airliner and protection to passenger compartment occupants.